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Having watched her mother supervise the food preparations for many a party and too many formal dinners to keep count from this kitchen, Audra was accustomed to seeing the room full of life, energy and busy hands on Friday nights.
“Wow. Wonder where she is?” Her voice echoed hollowly around her in the huge, empty space. “She should be supervising service of some course or another of dinner right now.”
“I’m not eating here tonight.”
Audra swung around to find Dominic standing in the open doorway. Backlit by the lamps of the corridor behind him, he looked like a vision in his black tux, with his hair casually, sexily spiked and his hands tucked into his trouser pockets. Her breath stuttered just at the sight of him.
“I made arrangements to go out with friends.”
“Oh.” That was the only sound that would come out of her mouth. He was—quite literally—breathtakingly handsome.
“I thought I’d let you know I was going so you didn’t come looking for me.”
Her fogged brain finally picked up that he was leaving. As in going out. As in not going to be paying any attention to Joshua on his first night in the house.
So much for brooding Heathcliff.
“You’re going?”
“Yes.”
“But it’s Joshua’s first night here!”
“And if I hadn’t hired you I couldn’t have accepted the invitation.”
Relief and understanding merged, and Audra’s tense muscles relaxed. “Oh, it’s business.”
He flashed her a smile. “Monkey business.”
His cocky attitude reminded her so much of her ex that any attraction she might have had to him flew out of the nearest window. She turned and walked back to the smallest of three stainless-steel refrigerators. The one she’d commandeered for all things Joshua.
“Dominic,” she said his name using the scolding tone her mother had used with her when she wanted to go out on a school night. “You have a son now. You can’t be going out just because the spirit moves you.”
“First, Joshua is not my son. He’s my nephew.” He stepped into the kitchen, took an apple from a bowl on the first island and tossed it into the air, then caught it. “Second, having someone to stay home with the baby is why I hired you.”
“No, you hired me to be a caretaker, not the love giver. Playing with Joshua, nurturing him, is your job.”
He tossed the apple into the air again, ignoring her.
“I’m serious.”
He didn’t reply, and a horrible realization hit Audra. He didn’t intend to nurture this little boy. Her heart caught with disbelief. Why would he refuse to be a dad to this adorable baby?
She glanced at blue-eyed, curly haired Joshua and decided Dominic simply hadn’t spent enough time with him. Once he had, he wouldn’t be able to help falling in love with him, and being a real dad would come naturally. And there was no time like the present to begin the process.
“Here.” She handed Joshua to him. “Can you hold him while I warm a bottle?”
Having no choice, Dominic awkwardly took the confused baby. From the expression on his face as he fumbled to settle Joshua on his arm, Audra guessed that part of his sudden need to get out of the house might be his own fear.
“I can help show you how to care for him,” she said, setting the bottle in the microwave and not looking at him, trying not to make a big deal out of it so he’d relax.
“I’m fine.”
“Not really.” She didn’t think it prudent to mention that not being able to even hold the baby was a clear indicator that he wasn’t fine. “I’m not talking about giving you actual baby lessons. But if you hang around us, especially while I’m here to help you bridge the gap, you could get to know Joshua by the time the permanent nanny gets here.”
“I already know him.” Struggling to contain the baby, whose confusion had become discomfort in his uncle-turned-father’s arms, Dominic glanced over at her. “He’s six months old. I’ve chucked his chin. I’ve said good-night to him when Marsha brought him into my brother’s den before he went to bed. He was with us on boat trips and family stays at the beach house. The real problem between me and old Josh here,” he said as he continued to wrestle the little boy, “is that I don’t have a whole hell of a lot in common with a baby and he doesn’t have the verbal skills to tell me about his day.”
Audra couldn’t help herself; she laughed. He was right. He and the baby didn’t have a lot in common. Still, what baby and daddy did?
When the bell rang signifying the bottle was warm, she took it from the microwave and set it on the counter, then clapped her hands together and said, “Give him back.”
